12 World War II Moments (That Hardly Anybody Ever Talks About)

Paratroopers were a key part of the Allied D-Day landings in France and subsequent operations such as Operation Market Garden in Holland, with the activities of the American 101st Airborne Division in particular immortalised by the Band of Brothers television series.

Never utilised before the commencement of the war, this new type of soldier was first employed by the Germans when they were forced to pick up the pieces of Mussolini’s disastrous invasion of Greece, which the Italian dictator (trying to impress Hitler by showcasing the might of the Italian army) had failed to subdue after six months of resistance.

The Greek mainland was swiftly conquered in April 1941, but the island of Crete had been heavily garrisoned as the Allies retreated. Seen as a huge threat to Axis oil supplies (as a convenient launching point for air raids on Romania), the Germans began an airborne invasion in May, leading to a short but brutal battle as British, Greek, Australian and New Zealander units united with the local population to resist for as long as possible, enabling more than half of the personnel stationed on the island to be evacuated to Egypt.

German and Italian losses were significant and airborne deployment was written off by Hitler, with the fallschirmjager being used mostly as elite infantry units from then on. The Allies saw great benefit in the ability to drop personnel behind enemy lines, however, utilising airborne divisions to great success (and failure) in the years that followed.